Tumalo Mountain, Oregon - June 2009

This terrain, climate, altitude, views, etc. are a little different than north Alabama ... to say the least. My wife and I flew out to Portland, OR, to visit with our son and daughter-in-law. I was determined to bag a peak of some kind. After seeing a blurb in Backpacker magazine about Tumalo Mountain and searching Trails.com, I decided that even an old man could make it the mile and a half to the top.

We left my wife at the Barnes & Noble in Bend -- severely strained right thigh hiking in the Sipsey with me -- and headed west to the bottom of Bachelor Mtn and Tumalo Mtn, which are right across from each other. Since we believed that we would encounter snow, we were uncertain that we would be able to get to the top ... but we were game to try. When we got to the sno-park, I called my wife to say that there was a lot of snow and didn't know whether or not we would get up the mountain.

It was a very bright, sunny morning, and we had nothing but time. We walked on the snow mobile road a little and the snow was very hard packed, so we

decided to head straight up toward the summit and see how far we could get. The snow was about three to four feet deep, but very hard packed, so we didn't have any trouble digging our toes and edges in to walk up the steep incline. As you can imagine, the climb of about 1200 feet elevation gain in a mile and a half makes for a pretty steep climb. Since there was no trail to follow--but lots of old footprints--we just headed straight up ... thought about switchbacks, but decided shorter was better on the hard-packed snow.

About 200 yards from the top we found a false summit (which we had seen through the trees and thought we were at the top) and decided to lunch on a log. After some water, power bars, and GORP, we decided to head on the final 200 yards. Keep in mind that I'm an old man hiking at 7000 feet higher than I live and work, so my son and daughter-in-law were forced to be very patient. I

know they wanted to sprint to the top, but they waited respectfully.

The summit was well worth the sweat ... we could easily see Mt Bachelor to the south and the Three Sisters to the northwest. One of the peaks that we thought was on of the Three Sisters was a blown out volcanic remnant that my d-in-law had dubbed the Ugly

Sister, we later discovered was called Broken Top. South Sister was easy to see; Middle Sister was easy to see; but North Sister was almost hidden beyond Middle Sister, so we didn't see it until it was pointed out to us. I made far too many pictures from the top, but the 360-view was so wonderful, I couldn't stop pushing that shutter button.

About ten minutes after we got to the top a lone hike came walking in and offered to take our picture. We struck up a conversation with him and he pointed out several hikes around the area. He showed us the North Sister and told us that the Ugly Sister was, in fact,

Broken Top. He told us about a great hike to the back side of Broken Top to which a 4-wheel drive would get a person most of the way. He told us about hikes up South Sister and several others he had made. He told my son and d-in-l that their upcoming hike on the Wonderland Trail around Mt Ranier would be a spiritual experience for them.

After about 30 minutes of conversation, we said good-bye and headed down to the parking lot. I could have stayed on the top another hour, except for the fact that my wife was in a bookstore and surrounding shops and would be trying to personally restart the Bend economic downturn. The solo guy said although he had made this Tumalo Mtn hike several times, he always had trouble hitting the parking lot because you can't see it or any landmarks through the massive forest near the bottom. Don't know how long it took us to get down, but it was certainly easier than the climb up. I was worried about my 90-lb daughter-in-law digging in the snowpack, but she did fine. She is a crackerjack woman and could have sprinted up the mountain had it not been for the old man she had to wait on.

We missed the parking lot about 50 yds ... and the lone hiker-guy came in about ten minutes after we did. I'm always sorry when I get back to my vehicle that I didn't take a hundred more photos than I did ... well, that's always a good reason to return.

Tumalo Mountain was a good choice--if I do say so myself. Thanks to Backpacker magazine for the idea. Hiking with my son and d-in-law was special. I fear that we won't be doing too many more together ... We chatted with the lone hiker some more, ate some more GORP, and drove down the hill some more to see a trail head that he had mentioned--Todd Lake. The road in was still snow blocked, but some snowmobile trailers were parked there. Would have been nice to drive up on a snowmobile ... but I'm a hiker-dude ... what can I say?